One Star

Friday, November 23, 2018

So before I get into today’s post, I have to note that it’s
been a long time since I’ve done a blog post. I appreciate that you’re still
here reading. I have been busy working on a book, Living Spirits: A Guide to
Magic in a World of Spirits, it will be out soon so I hope you’ll follow us
on Facebook so you’ll get all the updates and announcements about it.

With that out of the way…Wolfenoot. I would say that if you’re
unaware of Wolfenoot you’ve probably not been on social media in the last six
months, but yesterday was apparently when Rufus Opus first discovered it, after
seeing me comment on the lack of Wolfenoot cakes at the grocery store. So in
case you have not heard the story of Wolfenoot…

A little boy in New
Zealand explained to his parents that November 23rd was the
anniversary of the Great Wolf’s death, and to commemorate it there is a holiday
celebrated then, Wolfenoot. On Wolfenoot the spirit of the wolf goes around and
leaves presents for everyone. People who are kind to dogs or who keep dogs get
better presents. You eat roast meat, and cakes decorated like the full moon to
celebrate.

Pretty simple, and yet, pretty awesome. You might wonder
why I’m writing a blog post about it…but if you’ve followed Glory of the Stars
on Facebook you’ll have noted that we’ve shared quite a few Wolfenoot oriented
posts. I’m pretty excited about the idea. New holidays are cool…a calendar full
of holidays is also cool and is in keeping with more traditional Pagan
experiences. The holiday originating with a child is pretty cool, and the fact
that his parents put it out into the world to see how far his idea would spread
is amazing. The huge positive response and massive number of people ready to
adopt the holiday is also pretty nifty. So it’s got a certain coolness factor.

Beyond the coolness factor though it’s pretty germane to
stuff we talk about here. The holiday celebrates wolves and dogs, but in particular
the spirit of the wolf, who sounds like some sort of animal guardian spirit, is
a central figure. So you basically have a holiday for a nature spirit. It’s
even possible that the boy was inspired by a nature spirit. Children are often more
perceptive to such things. As far as I know the boy hasn’t explained much about
where the holiday came from. So we’ll never really know. But in my mind, it’s a
good opportunity for engaging certain nature spirits.

John Beckett on Patheos wrote a good piece on the idea of
natural religion and spirituality and used Wolfenoot as an example of how even
if we had a world devoid of religion humans would find ways to celebrate meaning
and connection. He talked about the Pagan feel of the holiday, which itself is
not Pagan, as he also noted. The holiday does not come from any traditional
Pagan canon, and the boy’s family has not, to my knowledge, expressed any Pagan
affiliation. The holiday is just there for everyone, especially people who love
or care for dogs. This openness has an element that reflects man’s earliest
religious experiences, before competing cultures created concepts of religious
affiliation. For people working in a world of spirits this kind of approach is
entirely sensible, because the spirits are there doing their thing regardless
of your religion or beliefs.

So the spirit of the wolf. Since this was originated by a
little kid there is not a lot of detail. So we have to look at some other sources
to build a concept. So…what is the wolf to us?

If we look at mythology and folklore, for me the first
obvious thoughts are Garm and Fenrir. Both wolves are associated with the
Ragnarok, the Doom of the Gods. Garm guards the entry way to the land of the
dead, howling as a herald of the Ragarok. His howl is associated with the
breaking of Fenrir’s bonds, after which Fenrir, the ravener, will run free, eat
corpses, and swallow the sun, all before he kills the Allfather, Odin, in the
battle which will take the lives of many gods.

Garm and Fenrir certainly don’t seem like the spirit of the
great wolf who gives presents to those who are kind to dogs, but they are not
the only important wolves in the North. Odin himself is accompanied by two
wolves, Freki and Geri. Odin is described as living on wine alone, and giving
all the food of his table to his wolves. Some scholars have suggested that
Odin, his wolves, and his ravens, form a sort of singular entity representing
the symbiosis of hunting allegiances from our prehistoric past. In the case of
Odin his ravens bring him knowledge and hold it for him, his wolves, who are
called greedy or ravenous, bring nourishment.

There
is a cyclical element to this. Fenrir is also called “ravenous” and Garm, and
Geri have names tied to the same linguistic origin. So the wolves that are the
companions of Odin are mirrored in the wolves that spell his doom. This is so
much the case that while Odin feeds Freki and Geri, he will eventually end his
life as food for Fenrir.

This
still doesn’t tell us much which is too linked to the Spirit of the Great Wolf,
at least not at first glance, but it does tell us something about nature
spirits. While Fenrir is not a nature spirit and neither is Freki, they both
have the form of a powerful symbol of nature, the wolf. If we look at stories
of nature spirits we will often find within the same culture stories in which a
single type of nature spirit appears as a wonderful ally for the people, and in
other stories the same type of spirit is a horrible and dangerous monster. Much
like these mirrored sets of wolves.

My
interpretation of this is that it reflects the community’s relationship with
the spirits. When we have good relations with nature spirits and when we respect
their spaces they are wonderful allies. When we forget our bonds with them, and
our relationship to their space becomes one of trespass, ingress, or destruction
then they become foreboding and harmful spirits whose dangerous intentions towards
us provide cautionary tales.

The
wolf was one of our earliest allies, and one who is perhaps a significant
contributor to our survival and development. The wolf became an ally for early
humans to help us hunt and help us defend ourselves in a time that was much
more dangerous for us. These wolves to whom we were allied traveled with us
into our settled lives as we developed agriculture and became dogs. As we
became more civilized and left the wild and the hunt, some wolves remained part
of that more wild natural world. They became a symbol of the danger of the wild
and those woodland spaces beyond our agrarian boundaries.

So
when we consider the Spirit of the Great Wolf, who leaves gifts for those who
are kind to dogs, there is definitely an element of strengthening the alliance
between man and wolf. Humans who have been good to dogs and wolves will be
rewarded, but so will other humans so they are reminded they have the
opportunity to be kind to dogs and wolves. Kindness begets kindness. A cyclical
relationship of guest and host is honored. This is a shining example of a right
relationship with the spirit world.

We
can also look at another example of the wolf in modern mythos who might help us
consider the nature of the Spirit of the Great Wolf, and this example also
provides us with a great wolf’s death:

“Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack by strength and cunning”

--Kipling, the Jungle Book

For anyone who grew up in cub scouts, Akela is an important foundational symbol
in our youth. He is the guide who teaches us the importance of the pack and how
we are to develop and learn and how to treat each other in that process.

Akela
eventually leaves the pack to go on his own when the pack betrays him, but he
still returns, and ultimately dies for the pack to help save the pack.

Where
the contrast between Fenrir and Garm juxtaposed to Freki and Geri helps
illustrate for us the relationship between men and wolves and also men and the
spirits of the land, Akela helps us understand what the spirit of the wolf
reflects for us. As the lone wolf, the great wolf, Akela both leads the pack
and is also his own wolf. He teaches the importance of the pack but also the
importance of understanding oneself and one’s own principles. He leads both by
strength, and by cunning, showing that physical prowess and intellect are two
hands that must work together. He illustrates self reliance but also duty to
one’s community.

If
we really think about what wolves represent, Akela is a pretty great
illustration. We value the lone wolf, but we also value the honor inherent in
commitment to one’s pack. We think of the wolf as the powerful dominant hunter,
a king of the woodland spaces, but we also think of the wolf as a clever hunter
who can stalk his prey as easily as he can hunt it down.

The
form of a nature spirit sometimes reflects what their relationship is to the
land, to the animals and plants there, and to the humans near the land. In my
thinking if we sought to engage a local spirit in the form of a wolf, or
perhaps the spirit who rules and watches over wolves and dogs, these qualities
would be the qualities we would recognize in that spirit, and those qualities
would be the lessons we would learn from that spirit, along with how to walk
side by side and benefit each other like early men and the ancestors of our current
canine companions.

So
obviously, celebrate Wolfenoot with some roast meat and a full moon cake. Maybe
make a donation to a charity for wolves or dogs as John Beckett recommended.

But
maybe also take a moment and explore it as an opportunity for magic.

Go
to a wild space and introduce yourself to the spirit of the wolves and the
local nature spirits there. Not deep into the wild space, but at that liminal
boundary space where the wild meets the tamed. Cut off a bit of the meat you’ve
roasted and offer it to the spirits of the land. Introduce yourself and let
them know you want to have a good relationship with them. Specifically call
upon the spirit of the wolves and ask it to help inspire you in this
relationship with both the tame and the wild parts of nature.

Don’t
take anything with you.

The
spirits of wild spaces should live in their wild spaces. Work to understand
those spirits and your relationship with those spirits safely adjacent to their
space rather than in your own space because not all spirits are spirits you
need in your home.

Happy
first Wolfenoot.

If
you enjoyed this blog follow us on Facebook. And keep an eye out for the book.

Friday, March 30, 2018

I'm sure many of my friends and blog
readers know I love Lent and get super excited about it. Last year I
had a pretty popular post about Ash Wednesday and my Gnostic
interpretation of the meaning of Ash Wednesday vis a vis Palm Sunday.
But did you know I think Holy Saturday is the most amazing day of the
year? I made sure my ordination as a Gnostic Catholic Priest fell on
the Saturday of the Easter Triduum for this reason, once I organized
a Mass, Class, Spaghetti Dinner, and Dionysian Mystery Tradition
ritual for a Holy Saturday chocked full of wonder. I think it's a day
which is in itself mystically inclined...here is a discussion I had
this early afternoon of why. I hope you enjoy it, and that you share
it with your friends, so that you and they can go find the infinite
in all that you do.

BJ: After 3pm we enter the best time of
the year. Because the church is dead and god is in hell.

College
Fencer: I’m sorry I must have been to the boring catholic education
cause that sounds way more fun than my average Good Friday

My
explanation as to why Holy Saturday is the Greatest Day of the Year
for Mystics, Gnostics, and Antinomianists:

The Harrowing of Hell occurs on Good
Friday after Christ's death when Christ descends into Hell and tears
down its gates and in doing so conquers sin and death. In this
process God essentially descends into Hell. Christ's incarnation is
described as God achieving sympathy for Man by taking on Man's
suffering and weakness. With the Passion on the Cross and the
Harrowing of Hell God takes on all sin, all suffering and pain and
descends into a moment of isolation from himself, achieving the
ultimate weakness and powerlessness before then conquering it. In
this moment God is closer to mankind than ever. In an almost
gravitational way God sinks below man and draws man closer into a
shared proximity than would seem otherwise possible.

When Christ dies the Church as his
Bride dies as well. From 3pm on Good Friday until Dawn on Easter
Sunday there is no Church. This is the most sacred antinomian moment.
There is no institution, there is no mediation so there is only man
and God. God's grace exists simultaneously with the depths of human
experience and error with no Magisterium to dictate its nature or how
to access it. This is shown when the veil of the Holy of Holies is
rent in the temple at the moment of Christ's death. The veil
separated the common man from the sanctum in which God resided, an
inner sanctum in which only the High Priest could enter. With the
veil torn asunder God permeates the world. With no Church and no Veil
man and God stand face to face unmediated such that man directly
experiences the infinite fully and unfiltered on his own terms in his
own space of being. With this it can be interpreted that in this time
all acts that express man's nature and his experience of the world
are redeemed and are in contact with divine grace.

Death, or the withering of man from a
state of perfection in which he resides within divine grace, is the
price of experience and knowledge in the story of Man's exile from
Eden. It is by descending into the fullness of human experience that
Christ defeats death and returns the dead to paradise. Thus again,
the full experience of our humanity during Holy Saturday is the
experience of divine grace which allows death to be conquered and Sin
to be transcendent.

So in my view, as a Gnostic Catholic,
from the afternoon of Good Friday through to Dawn on Easter
represents full access to the goal of mysticism, union with God and
transcendence over the suffering and error of humanity such that our
humanity, our drives and desires are elevated as the vehicles by
which we Triumph and are resurrected with the Dawn.

If
you enjoyed this please like us on Facebook and please share this
post and our Facebook page. If you want to connect and you like
spirits and talking with other magicians who work with spirits please
join in with our Facebook group, Living Spirits.

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Yesterday
I wrote about making magic part of the structure of your life by
doing magic regularly. Not doing spiritual exercises, or yoga, or
meditation, but actual magic, the work of making change in the world
through the application of occult forces. In the case of yesterday's
post I specifically was referencing work with spirits. You can do
other magic routinely too, and I think whether we're talking about
work with spirits, or ritual kabbalistic magic, or folk magic or
whatever systems we might approach, those same problems I mentioned
yesterday, the same excuses, the same walls we put up to hinder
ourselves will apply regardless of what system we're working.

So
today I want to suggest a few ways to make it easier to actually do
the work.

Yesterday's
theme was consistency.

If
you're committed to doing the work regularly the work gets easier.

Today
we're going to talk about planning and preparation.

One
of the best places to start is with a calendar, and with phone apps.
A desk calendar is probably the way to go because it will have plenty
of space to make notes. On my phone I have an app called “Reaganium”
which calculates planetary hours. You can use a calendar view to
project out days. So you can write out the planetary hours on your
desk calendar so you have them in advance. I have another one called
“Astro Charts” which runs astrological charts, breaks down tables
of aspects and positions, and lets you advance or move back the date
or time for the chart at various increments. So you can look for
astrological positions and elections and mark them on your calendar
so you know when interesting magical moments might come up. I have an
app called “Catholic Saints” which isn't as great, but it gives a
list of Catholic saints and feast days for each day. Hellenion has a
calendar on their website which lists all of their interpretations of
when the Greek Pagan holidays are, which can be useful for noting
festivals of the dead, and observances for Hekate and the
Agathodaimon.

Whatever
things you might need to take into account for observances there is a
way to look them up somewhere. So rather than wait until you see
something on Facebook and think “oh shit I missed it” or “I
don't have time to prepare for that!” you can have the whole month
planned out.

Maybe
there is nothing that month you'll want to observe, but there might
be interesting things you wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

Another
thing that will be helpful is a book.

I
know I frequently pull out a handful of books when I want to put
together some ritual. I think of prayers, incantations, conjurations,
invocations, and other elements which are in various sources and
sometimes I have to keep books upon to various pages, which is
awkward. Other times I type up the script for the ritual I want and
print it. Even if I'm working from a single text often the ritual
components aren't lined up conveniently as a ritual script and so I
have to type up and arrange them.

So
if I haven't preplanned my ritual I might not feel like I have time
to put it together in a last minute circumstance. Or if my printer
has a hiccup then that can make printing a script difficult or can
slow things down to the point of being inconvenient.

So
there are two solutions to these problems.

The
first one is to memorize various prayers and orations which you will
use frequently and know your ritual components enough that you don't
need a script. This may or may not be ideal. Some magicians think
this is the way to go, but most evidence suggests that magicians
worked from books historically. There are both magical and practical
reasons for working from a written source.

So
if you want a written source, keep a ritual book. Have a book where
you've written down your various component parts, your orations and
your prayers. Then you have a single source to go through instead of
various books, and you don't have to write a ritual, you just have to
use the pieces you keep assembled. You can even include in it set
complete ritual scripts instead of just components. Having some stuff
memorized is good too, and there are instances where working from
memory of spontaneously will make sense, but having your set rituals,
working methods, and components already on paper will make your magic
a lot more plug and play.

Boxes
and tchotchkes. I keep “sorcery boxes” or boxes that have herbs,
iron nails, sachet bags, loadstones, and various other things I might
need to use. So I can just pull out a box and grab the things I want.
I have a plastic stacker of drawers for candles and I order colored
candles in bulk sets so I can just reach in and get whatever candles
I need. Another drawer has labeled glass candles, another has pillars
and tea lights. Keeping your stuff organized and keeping a well
stocked supply means you don't have to worry about digging out
components or running to the store to get supplies.

A
way to step that part of the game up would be boxes based on
categories. So a jupiter box...not like a charmed box that is itself
a Jupiter working, but a storage box filled with Jupiter
correspondences, or one for things related to the element of water,
or ones for things related to a particular spirit, or a box for love
magic. However you group things in your mind magically, organize your
stuff based on that. That way when you decide to make a sweetening
jar at 6:45am before you head to work you don't have the excuse “well
I don't know what correspondences I have, and I won't have time to
look through everything and select stuff” because your stuff is
already selected and grouped and handy.

You
can go further by having blanks for talismans ready to go, or even
having pre-etched or pre-drawn talismans and sigils on hand so that
you just have to charge or consecrate them or activate them and then
use them in your ritual or your work.

The
last thing is space. One big problem people run into is not having a
set ritual space. I've had lots of beginning magicians talk to me
about needing to work around family or roommate schedules, or not
having a room dedicated to magic so they aren't sure where to
practice. Or their current options for where to practice don't allow
them to make a huge set up. Or even if they have space the idea of
setting stuff up might seem time consuming or daunting for people
with not a lot of time and who are trying to squeeze out their last
waking bits of energy to do something.

You
usually don't need a huge set up.

So
there are a couple ways to work this. The two I'm going to suggest, I
use both of them.

One,
having permanently set altars. You don't necessarily need a
permanently set ritual room, but having an altar makes it a lot
easier. I have an ancestor altar permanently set up in my dining
room. It's right there in the open so it's easy to work with it
often. I feel it nagging me...I mean calling to me when I don't work
with it often enough.

I
also have an altar from when I tried to return to druid work a few
years ago, and one from some work I did with a particular God about
two years ago, and I have one for spirit work. I keep a small shelf
on a little bookshelf for devotional stuff for a God that has helped
me several times. Finding places where you can set stuff up
permanently so you can just walk up and use it makes things so much
easier and so much faster. It does mean you need to set time to tend
to the altar though.

Say
you don't have a set approach you want to work with all the time, or
you can't always leave an altar set up. Use altar tops. You can get a
piece of wood, or canvas board and paint or etch your table of
practice, or altar design into it. You can keep a handful of these
for various systems. Wrap them in cloth when not using them, and when
you need them pull them out and set them on top of a table. Folding
TV tables work well for this because they're small enough that you
can easily make an altar top that will fully cover the table.

So
imagine you're looking to do some prosperity work. Thursday comes,
you get home from work, you think to yourself “I really need to
call upon Sachiel and consecrate a Jupiter talisman, maybe make a
mojo bag too. Ugh, but I have to get dinner made and I need to finish
prepping for tomorrow's meeting.” So you start cooking dinner, and
then you look up the sunrise and sunset time, draw your planetary
hour chart and you see that the planetary hour for Jupiter started
just after you got home, and the next one isn't til the middle of the
night, so now you'll have to get up or miss it. You aren't sure if
you have the right incense so you pull out 777 and look and decide
you could run to the witch shop after dinner, but it's 30 minutes
away so that isn't convenient. You open the Fourth Book of Occult
Philosophy and see a prayer for Thursday you could use, but there is
no ritual for Thursday that you can just read from. So you decide
you'll just light a candle and hope some hopes before you prepare for
your meeting and then go to bed.

Now...successful
you, a well prepared magician who conjures spirits at least a few
times a month and has a good relationship with his ancestors and gate
keepers and local land spirits comes home from work and looks at the
calendar. You see the needed planetary hour will begin in a half hour
and you note that Jupiter is in a good aspect based on other notes
you made. You go to your bookshelf and pull out your Jupiter box, you
grab an appropriate oil blend from the box and go take a quick shower
and anoint yourself with Jupiter oil while reciting the orphic hymn
to Jupiter. You go to your sorcery box and pull out a sachet bag, and
then pull some items to fill the bag from your Jupiter box, along
with some incense and Sachiel's seal. You put on your robe and call
upon Amacor and his crew, and you open up your ritual book to your
Thursday conjuration ritual. You take a quick detour outside to leave
some corn and butter for the nature spirits and tell them what you're
about to do, and upon coming inside you pour a little whiskey as you
knock on your ancestor altar and let them know what's up. Then you go
to your spirit altar and begin about 10 minutes after the planetary
hour has started. Thirty minutes later you're done, and now it's time
to order pizza and watch Jessica Jones on Netflix. After you pay the
pizza delivery guy you feel the new Jupiter mojo bag in your pocket
next to your wallet and you smile.

It
can be hard to keep up with your magic amid the rest of life. So make
it easy for yourself. Be the magician in the second scenario.

If
you enjoyed this please like us on Facebook and please share this
post and our Facebook page. If you want to connect and you like
spirits and talking with other magicians who work with spirits please
join in with our Facebook group, Living Spirits.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Three
days ago I had a Facebook memory pop up of sharing a post from Jason
Miller's blog two years ago, titled “ABC Always Be Conjuring.”
The post was a joke, he was parodying a speech from the Movie
Glengarry Glen Ross, you should read it (and Jason's blog in general)
if you haven't.

I
almost re-posted the memory, not because the post is funny (which it
is), but because the basic sentiment is true and useful...and is one
I think people, myself included, don't always get or follow through
on.

The
speech was originally a hard push for super aggressive sales people,
the parody sets it up as an inspirational redress of nascent
sorcerers calling them to a life of constant committed conjuring and
spirit work. On the surface it's goofy, it's a fun joke, but, the
basic message “always be conjuring” can actually inspire a useful
view point.

Magic
isn't a band-aid, it's not a quick fix or a cure all. Magic, at it's
core, is based on understanding fundamental elements of the
structures behind existence and how we use those to accomplish the
changes we desire. With that in mind shouldn't magic be part of the
structure of our lives? Doing a little magic here or there, or even
having a developed magical practice but only using it when we need to
solve magic issues is not making it part of the structure of our
lives. Using it as a fail safe or last effort is making it an
accessory that we hang on the scaffolding of our personal structures.
Even if we're not saving it for dire situations, if we're putting it
on a pedestal and not fluidly weaving it into what we do, and who we
are, then it's still just something that decorates us rather than
something which supports us.

Doing
magic takes time and effort. Sometimes we don't want to put in that
time and effort. Sometimes we've spent the day at work, we've dealt
with whatever our evening tasks are – whether it's a second job,
school, a family, an activity, and we're just tired. Or maybe we
don't have the stuff we need and won't be ready in the right hour. Or
we don't have a temple space and our room is a mess and we don't feel
magical. Maybe, tonight you have a headache or need to wash your
hair. Maybe we can come up with a dozen or so reasons not to do
magic.

Then
maybe we need something, and it's important and...we still don't do
magic. We're not in the habit. There are probably other solutions.
It's not something we need to use magic for anyway. We're not sure
which method would be best.

Then
maybe we need more stuff, maybe the situation gets more difficult,
and now magic makes a lot more sense. Maybe we need a solution and
magic seems like the only way to make a solution tenable.

Why
be in that situation? It doesn't just make magic more difficult
because the goal is more difficult, it leaves you in the wrong mental
state to even approach problem solving, let alone magical problem
solving. You're definitely not in a mental state where it's going to
be easy to approach magic. And all those things you've taught
yourself to use to avoid magic are still going to be there on top of
whatever other stress you have.

If
you're a magician, do magic. Not just meditation, not just spiritual
maintenance, or lesser banishing rituals or whatever daily or weekly
exercises you might have. Most of that isn't magic. Do magic.

I
myself have this problem. When I was really young and mostly doing
witchcraft and NeoPagan magic I used magic all the time for stuff. As
an older teenager into young adult years this continued. But
eventually I kind of got this idea that you need to measure yourself
against things you don't affect by magic, and that sometimes you
should knuckle down and suffer through things without magic to build
character. Neither idea really makes sense. What you create with
magic is as real as what you create with anything else. Magic is, in
a way, the same as any other effort. Don't make it so special that
specialness becomes a reason not to do it.

Now
that I'm a full grown adult the problem is less that magic is too
special to use, or that the reality touched by magic is different
from reality untouched by magic. It's that I go to work for 8 hours,
get about an hour to have dinner, and then coach a sport for five
hours during which much of my time is spent running around and
drilling sword techniques into middle and high school boys and then
when they're done I get to do it again with college kids until I'm
sweaty gross and tired when I get home at midnight.

I'm
sure a lot of you have some sort of similar experience...just...with
fewer swords, maybe less sweat. More likely fixing dinner for your
kids and putting them to bed, after trying to figure out how to do
homework in subjects you haven't looked at since you were their age,
or working a second job, or whatever.

But
if you're reading my blog I'm assuming magic is something that's
important to you, or that calls to you. I assume you either consider
yourself a magician or you want to be a magician. So you need to do
magic, and like I said before, magic, not magical aerobics.

Call
spirits regularly, work with them.

I
work with my ancestors at least weekly, often more than once a week.
I don't have a regular schedule for conjurations though. Recently
when I was out to dinner with the Brodepti we all talked about how we
don't do magic much – but all of us had conjured a spirit for
something within the preceding week. In our minds if we weren't back
in our Abramelin retreat schedules with hours of prayer and ritual a
day we weren't doing enough magic. Maybe we aren't, but maybe you
don't need to always be on that kind of schedule. You won't always be
conjuring...but, conjure often, and conjure even when you don't need
things.

You
should use your routine prayers as meditations. This helps you learn
them but also helps draw the forces they call into your life. Each
day finding a time to say the planetary prayer for the day, or the
orphic hymn, or a prayer associated with a god or spirit you work
with is a useful technique. This shouldn't be where it stops though.

Call
the spirits.

If
you know them and they know you it's easier to call them and easier
to work with them. If you work with one a lot ask it to give you a
familiar spirit, or a special sign and name by which to easily call
it.

Everyone
these days talks about building a relationship with the spirits. You
can't do this if you only call spirits when you need something.

That
said, only give them something when you're asking for something.
Don't give them offerings with pronouncements of your loyalty and
dedication and how you're ready to honor them. Most spirits we're
calling in magic aren't gods, and acting like they are can skew the
relationship especially when you eventually really need something.

Asking
to get to know them is still asking for something in return for your
offering.

Run
through the spirits of the planets, or the elementals, call your
ancestors, introduce yourself to your backyard's nature spirits, see
if your house has a household spirit, or ask the local spirits to
help you attract one. Call on these spirits and ask them to teach you
about them, the things they do, the things that interest them and the
ways in which they work with the things that interest them.

Build
a rapport. Get to know them, get them to know you.

Ask
them to help in general ways with your life.

When
you find small specific things that maybe don't seem like they need
magic, ask for help with those things. When you want something that
maybe doesn't need magic, ask for it.

Work
a structure in your life that is built with magic woven into it.
Build a structure where you have a working relationship with the
spirits you need and keep that relationship actively involved in
building your life.

Be
good at adulting.

Never
exercising and always eating junk food won't make you healthy. Never
paying bills won't help you have the things you need. Not finishing
tasks at work won't help you keep your job. Not doing magic won't
make magic part of your life.

If
you use magic to better things when things aren't bad, and to solve
problems while they're small it will help you avoid bigger problems
becoming potentially catastrophic ones. Same as mundane attention
will. If you want to do magic make it part of this process of
attention to the things you need in your life. If it's worked in
already then you need less ritual, you need less preparation, you
need less time, and the pathways the spirits need to manifest things
are already well trodden and established from your routine work with
them.

Always
be conjuring.

It's
something I'm not as good about as I should be. But it's something
I'm going to be more mindful of. Hopefully it's something you'll be
more mindful of too if you aren't already.

Monday, February 12, 2018

I
was reading Facebook today and I saw a post about a spirit working
someone intended to do. I don't really know this person, and as I
understand it they are an experienced and competent magician, so the
questions that sprang to my mind were not necessarily really about
this person and their intentions so much as just those inspired by
the idea of this particular working in a vacuum. At the end of the
day, some of my questions were interesting for me to think about, but
I'm not part of the tradition of that spirit so they're not really
relevant for me to talk about. There was one though that stuck with
me, one which works as a general question beyond any particular
spirit or tradition.

The
question that came in almost as if whispered to me was this, “what
spirit is going to mediate her (the spirit) for you?”

Not
only did the question stick out to me, but during the course of the
day someone reached out to ask about a previous post that connects to
this question.

We've
talked before about intermediaries and spirits who give introduction.
This is somewhat related to that idea, in fact very related to that
idea, but it also goes further. An intermediary spirit might be a
spirit that opens a particular pathway or kingdom and allows access
to the spirits within that domain, and may also allow them access to
work in the world. An introducing spirit is a spirit with whom you
have a working relationship who facilitates work with spirits with
whom you do not yet have a working relationship, they're your inside
man, or your guy who knows the guy. The intermediary could also be
your introducing spirit, or you might work with separate spirits in
this role.

When
we talked before about your “first spirit” or the initial spirit
with whom you have contact, who may even be the spirit that brings
you into magic, a large part of that spirit's role was as the
introducing spirit. Depending on the work you're doing it might still
be that first spirit, or it might be a spirit attached to you by
initiation, or through some spiritual or magical process, or it might
be a different spirit or group of spirits depending upon the work
you're doing.

Depending
upon the spirits you're working with, or the type of work you're
doing, there may be two other jobs that these spirits may take on, or
perhaps they won't take these jobs on, perhaps you'll need another
spirit to do these jobs. The jobs in question aren't ones with fancy
classic names, but we can think of one as a mediator or translator,
and the other as a kind of organizer or project manager.

The
mediator or translator functions to facilitate a comprehensible
interaction with the spirits with whom you're working. Often this is
your possessing spirit if you have one, the spirit who can sit with
you and whisper directly to you guiding you and interpreting for you.
In this context the idea is that you may not fully comprehend
directly what a spirit is saying or communicate directly in a way
comprehensible to the spirit, and so this mediating spirit allows for
that communication.

This
idea isn't really explored much in Western magic.

But
it's a pretty good idea, and I think it's often there in Western
Magic without us necessarily understanding it.

Generally
in grimoire magic this would be described as Divine Wisdom, the Holy
Spirit, The Holy Guardian Angel, or the Spiritual Assistant. In the
Greek Magical Papyri there is a good example of this in which one
essentially conjures “the light” as the means through which to
make the conjuration of the spirit in question, and the light is
clearly needed to interact comprehensibly with said spirit. The
Sacred Magic hints at the idea in that it doesn't really tell you how
to call on or command the demons, just that your angel will tell you
how to do it and what to do and what to say and basically facilitate
the process.

So
when working with a spirit, whatever spirit mediates for you would
sit with you and assist in communication between you and the spirit.
Depending upon the relationship you could perceive this directly, or
perhaps it would just work like a lens and you wouldn't see a process
to it. Engaging this relationship though would be part of entering
into the magical space for your work, just as would your ritual
purification or putting on your robes, in fact, in early grimoires a
series of angels are called upon as one dons the robe, or the
garments of salvation, highlighting that an immersion within spirits
is part of the process of entering into the work.

If
you communicate through divination your spirit would be the spirit
who sanctifies your divination space and tools and allows them to
speak truly for you, creating the space in which the spirit being
called can enter and speak and have their answers translated into
your tool.

When
the spirit is functioning to organize or be a project manager of
sorts it is coordinating your efforts with the spirits, and perhaps
other magical efforts as well. Fr. Rufus Opus wrote a piece on this
for Zero = Two called “The HGA: Chef to the Gods”. In this he
talks about how the Holy Guardian Angel, and other spiritual
assistants, understand what is pleasing and what is not pleasing to
other spirits you might choose to conjure. Like the role of an
intermediary in facilitating communication the intermediary can
facilitate the etiquette of the interaction. Beyond this, the
intermediary can help in bringing spirits.

The
spirit in this coordinating role can also help in identifying what
spirits you should work with on a particular task. When working with
my ancestors this happens somewhat regularly. I'll ask for help with
a problem and they'll tell me to conjure a particular spirit with
them so they can help with the interaction. In all such instances the
idea of conjuring a spirit wasn't one that was on my mind, but it
ended up being a good choice. Recently I was considering a
conjuration and my ancestors advised me to work with them in going
through the Book of the Offices of Spirits to select what demon to
call. Allies in the spirit world who know the spirits and know your
needs can guide you in what spirits to bring into your life.

In
my story about car trouble, my ancestors, and the archangel Raphael
were involved to help mediate the forces and guide the efforts of the
other angels and aerial spirits I had called upon. So in addition to
guiding you on what spirits to work with, those spirits with whom you
have a close relationship can also help guide the interaction and
coordinate the work of the other spirits you're working with.

Consider
a situation in which you need a job. You go to your Holy Guardian
Angel, or your ancestors, or Hekate or whatever intermediary or ally
you have and ask what you should do. They direct you to a spirit
under the rulership of Jupiter, another under the rulership of
Mercury, one under the rulership of the Sun, and the gnomes. You
conjure each spirit and describe your desire, each being conjured
with your intermediary also having been invoked. Your intermediary
guides the Jupiterian spirit to help establish fecundity and
prosperity in your life, the Mercurial spirit works to improve the
reception of your resume and your ability at interviews, and inspires
call backs, the Solar spirit provides a sense of honor and dignity
when interviewers look at you, and the gnomes build the actual
manifestation of the job from the conditions the other spirits move
in your favor.

You
could do one conjuration of one spirit and it could work towards what
you want, and it could be successful. Or you can coordinate an effort
on multiple fronts and increase the options for the best result.
Different forces each working on their own for a goal uncoordinated
may have elements that you don't want because they're not focused, or
it may have spirits working in ways that compete against each other,
or which work in parallel but don't work together. Having a spirit
who helps coordinate that interaction allows them to actually work
together, focused on their particular domain, in a way which directs
their efforts specifically in the way needed rather than on generally
adding their influence to a particular area of your life.

When
working in this manner your spirit can also help coordinate offerings
you make in thanks. Again, in Rufus's example he makes the case that
your Holy Guardian Angel can set a banquet for the spirits, but
another way to look at this is when you set offerings for the spirits
you've worked with, the spirit who you approach to guide that work
can also help facilitate all the spirits receiving the offering
together, so that you can make one rather than many. If you need to
make separate offerings, your spirit working as your point of
contact, can also instruct you in that.

So
what spirits serve this role and how do you develop that
relationship? Ultimately this is a spirit relationship which is on
going and personal. It's not a spirit relationship that is always
about getting something specific. Sometimes interaction with these
spirits will be about the interaction and developing the
relationship. There can be a benefit to this being a “head spirit”
or “possessing spirit” one that sits with you and works with you
even outside of ritual work, especially if the spirit is helping you
speak with other spirits. Depending upon the type of spirit though it
might be one with a more ritual based relationship and interaction.
In any case it should be a spirit where your relationship with the
spirit is such that it will have an awareness of your needs and will
understand you.

An
easy relationship to develop in that regard is with your ancestors.
They already have an interest in you and are often open to making a
connection. If you're working in a system drawn from the grimoires or
systems of Western magic then the Holy Guardian angel can function in
this capacity. The spiritual assistant of the Greek Magical Papyri,
or some types of familiar spirits can also serve these purposes. We
can look at crossroads spirits like Hekate for this, particularly
ones like her since she has power in all areas of creation, in my
experience the directional kings would not serve in these roles in
the same way, unless you're coordinating work only in a singular
kingdom. In traditions like Quimbanda the Exu and Pomba Gira to whom
you are connected primarily would serve in these purposes, and as I
understand it, these functions are built into that tradition with
these spirits. I would imagine other African Diaspora traditions have
similar systems in place in which your main spirits assist in
interfacing with other spirits. Looking at those traditions, looking
at the role of the familiar in traditional European witchcraft and in
Greek sorcery can guide us in how to approach spirits as part of a
living world rather than as a static system of tools, which has
unfortunately been a fairly present perception in established modern
ceremonial magic...but, it's one which is fortunately changing as
more magicians engage with the spirit world.